[documentation] Contributors to docs need more public recognition

[Steve Dondley]

Let me add to the very end "defer to if you wanted to."

On Mon, May 26, 2008 at 12:20 AM, Steve Dondley <sdondley at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 1. I like the fact that right now, if I spot a typo, or a page that
>> could use some general clean-up, I can just go in and fix it. I don't
>> need to get "approval" from someone, because the handbook and its
>> content belongs to /all/ of us, and each of the docs team members are
>> all the collective caretakers of it.
>
> Good points. My error was throwing around the word "ownership" over
> pages. Bad choice of words because it's not really what I had in mind.
> Perhaps "maintainer" would be better. "Ownership" conjures up all the
> scenarios you mention.
>
> So let me clear it up. I didn't mean to suggest that document
> maintainers would have the same restrictive gatekeeper role as a
> module maintainer. Instead, I would envision someone who calls
> themselves a "maintainer" of a page, a role they can choose to
> relinquish at any time. Each page could have multiple maintainers but
> anyone could still edit the page. Some pages might have zero
> maintainers until someone decides to step up. Having a document
> maintainer is just a way for a person to publicly declare, "I'm
> interested in taking an active role in improving and maintaining the
> quality of this document." This would be someone who wants to get
> notified or asked for advice on what's on that page. Nothing more than
> that. They could easily drop out of that role anytime they wanted.
>
> So what's the difference between that and what we have now? Well, in
> my mind, the big difference between a "maintainer" and a "contributor"
> is that a "maintainer" is willing to take requests directly from the
> community and do the contributing on behalf of others. But, again,
> nothing would ever give the maintainer the power over others to
> contribute. They would just be someone you could defer to.
>
>
>
>>
>> ---
>>
>> Let's take a practical example of why I oppose a move like this.
>>
>> "Clean URL support in XAMPP": http://drupal.org/node/43545.
>>
>> I wrote this page initially because I had lost an hour futzing with
>> getting this to work and wanted to document it quickly for future
>> reference. About two weeks later, I ended up starting a new job and
>> buying a Mac, after which time I never touched XAMPP again.
>>
>> Over the years (http://drupal.org/node/43545/revisions), other members
>> of the docs team have greatly expanded and improved this page beyond its
>> initial scratchings. They never once hassled me to ask if they could
>> update it; they just saw the need for improvement and went at it. This
>> is a *good* thing, and as you can see, has resulted in a much better
>> piece of documentation for the community.
>>
>> If you had to give some sort of "credit" for this page, to whom would
>> you give it? Certainly not to me; I started the page and never went back
>> again (okay, once, to re-parent it). add1sun has the most revisions if
>> you count raw numbers, but most of her work was around making the
>> formatting nicer rather than adding technical detail. No, this is an
>> example of a handbook page collectively owned, maintained, and improved
>> by *the Drupal community*. It transcends ownership of any particular
>> individual. And this is a great thing.
>>
>> And if this page example is too trite for you, I could point to dozens
>> more, including the CVS Quickstart Guide @
>> http://drupal.org/handbook/cvs/quickstart which I'm pretty sure just
>> about everyone has used at one point or another.
>>
>> -Angie
>> --
>> Pending work: http://drupal.org/project/issues/documentation/
>> List archives: http://lists.drupal.org/pipermail/documentation/
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Prometheus Labor Communications, Inc.
> http://prometheuslabor.com
> 413-572-1300
>
> Communicate or Die: American Labor Unions and the Internet
> http://communicateordie.com
>



-- 
Prometheus Labor Communications, Inc.
http://prometheuslabor.com
413-572-1300

Communicate or Die: American Labor Unions and the Internet
http://communicateordie.com